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Luzerne County zoning ordinance overhaul pending council approval

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Collection drive held to support local law enforcement

On the site of today&rsquo;s Pittston Area&rsquo;s Martin L. Mattei Middle School and Intermediate Center on New Street, a popular stadium was constructed from coal waste and ashes in the mid-to-late 1940s.
				Bone Stadium was the home field of the Pittston High School football team and hosted Pennsylvania State Police horse shows, rodeos and circuses from the stadium&rsquo;s opening in 1947 through 1970.
				But it were midget car and stock car races that jammed the stadium with spectators. 
				Bone Stadium was built by George W. Bone Sr., a life resident of Pittston and a land developer, a sand and gravel business owner, coal operator and a sportsman. His civic accomplishments in turning a burning culm pile into a useful stadium for the public to enjoy earned him being named &ldquo;Man of the Year in Pittston&rdquo; in 1947 by the Greater Pittston Junior Chamber of Commerce.
				&ldquo;George Bone worked hard and was rewarded with financial success but that is only part of the George Bone story,&rdquo; reported the Sunday Dispatch on July 4, 1976.
				Bone began transferring wasted coal land into what became Bone Stadium shortly after World War II.
				&ldquo;It took quite a bit of personal courage to buy a burning culm dump and extinguish it by pushing it into a hole by the shovel full. That&rsquo;s what Bone Stadium originally was, a burning culm dump that he and his family converted into a showplace for racing, Barnum and Bailey Circus, Father Peyton&rsquo;s Rosary Crusade and high school football,&rdquo; the Dispatch reported.
				Construction of Bone Stadium began in 1945. While not completed, Bone Stadium hosted the Coal Bowl Game, senior football players from nine Greater Pittston area high schools, attended by an estimated crowd of 5,000 on Dec. 6, 1947, reported the Times Leader on Dec. 8, 1947.
				By the spring of 1948, a one-quarter mile midget auto race track was added to the stadium with spectator stands shaped in a horse-shoe.
				&ldquo;The inception of the midget auto race track will not detract from the original idea to make this site an ideal free playground for the children of Greater Pittston,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported April 30, 1948.
				Nearly 9,000 people were in attendance at Bone Stadium for the first midget car races held May 25, 1948.
				The main race was planned to be 25 laps but was cut short due to excessive oil on the track.
				&ldquo;The crowd for the first weekly program at the new stadium was far beyond expectations,&rdquo; the Wilkes-Barre Record reported May 26, 1948.
				With the success of midget car racing, Bone Stadium began hosting stock car racing and demolition derbies complete with drivers doing stunts in vehicles through the late 1950s.
				&ldquo;Despite four crack-ups which slowed the race, Ed Spencer won the 100 lap event before 1,575 persons at Bone Stadium last night,&rdquo; reported the Times Leader Sept. 4, 1956.
				As attendance dwindled in the late 1950s, the Greater Pittston area was caught by surprise in September 1959 about Bone Stadium.
				&ldquo;A bombshell was dropped at last night&rsquo;s meeting of Pittston City council when a building permit, submitted by the B&M Construction Company, was read and referred to the proper authorities for approval,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported Sept. 30, 1959.
				Bone owned the construction company and planned to turn the stadium into a shopping center with 10 stores.
				As the permit was withdrawn, races continued at Bone Stadium but failed to attract the large crowds it once had in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
				Bone Stadium began hosting rodeos and was used mostly for religious events.
				High school football games continued to be played at Bone Stadium by nine of the high schools in the Pittston area.
				By 1970, Bone Stadium was rarely used and municipal and school officials began looking at the property for other uses.
				The Pittston Housing Authority considered Bone Stadium for 150 low-income housing apartments while officials with the Pittston School administration purchased 32 acres at a cost of $256,000 for a new school building.
				&ldquo;Machinery was set in motion at last night&rsquo;s meeting of Pittston Area School District for the erection of a new elementary school building to cost approximately $3 million. Site of the new school was changed from the Swallow Street section of Pittston to New Street, the old Bone Stadium site,&rdquo; the Times Leader reported Sept. 11, 1970.
				While a new school building replaced Bone Stadium, the back section of Riverview Manor apartments are located on the old stadium grounds with most of the apartment complex built on what was the Riverview Drive-In Theater.

Look Back: Midget car races, high school football held at Bone Stadium